My original plan of going to Europe on my R1150RT for 4-6 weeks next year has changed. A friend has expressed an interest and he has mentioned something that I think would be massive fun as well as reasonably challenging.

A couple of weeks ago we had a few s together and came up with a great idea. Beers and ideas don't usually turn out too well as we all know but we have both continued this conversation ever since when no s were involved and each of us appears to be as keen as the other.

He doesn't have a bike at the moment but he does hold a license. He is financially challenged to come up with a big amount of cash but is working and can comfortably raise some by March 2017. He reckons he could buy a bike for around £1000 that would take him on a 4 month European trip and if he can find something suitable he'd be buzzing to commit to making the plan. I was thinking that if we could find 2 similar bikes then it may be an idea to use them from the point of view of spares etc.

I know there are downsides to buying a bike for that kinda money. Reliability, ease of finding parts, frequent breakdowns, etc. etc., the list could go on so I'm not really looking for additional problematic suggestions. We both have a positive outlook on life and get along very well but here's the question......

What could (or should) we be looking for in the c.£1000 bracket (give or take a few quid but not much).
1. We will be doing lots of camping with occasional cheap B&B stays so it needs to be able to carry our kit.
2. It would need to be minimum of 350cc but with no real maximum limit
3. Off road riding will not be a big part of anything we do, maybe a few hundred yards down a track or something.
4. We're both average size and weight.
5. Single cylinder, twins or fours.....no real preference.

So if you HAD TO make the above journey on these conditions what would you buy.

Honda CB500 twin, you should get a good one for that price and totally bullet proof or as much as anything is.

That's a decent shout Mark, thank you.
Any enduro-type bikes you think are worth considering!

BMW F650 can be a pretty good buy with a good reputation, you should get one for a grand.

A friend of a friend here in Wiltshire has a KLR650 for sale for about £1100, I'm sure pound notes will drop the price to £1k.

Unfortunately it's painted all in olive drab, but that could soon be rectified.

Maybe a Honda Fireblade 900?

Great idea

Easy. A 650 Honda Deauville. This was what BMW should have replaced the R80 RT with.
Very, very reliable - but replace the fuel pump with a Facet pump - DIY and about £30.

Suzuki XF650 Freewind - have had two - paid just over a grand for both. Rode 2nd one 2000 miles in 4 days to my house in Bulgaria last year, two weeks after I bought it, in the worst weather I've ridden in in for years. Left in the barn all winter, charged up the battery, changed the oil and did over 2000 miles riding around Bulgaria in several weeks this summer - never missed a beat.

Lots of other bikes on ebay around a £1000! SV650, CBR600F, GSX600,GPZ500, GS500etc.

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I don't have to travel fast but I do need to travel cheap

klr? xr400?

There is a DRZ for sale in the for sale bit of this forum for £1000 now......

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Facebook: Me, my bike and I

My bmw k100rs, it's 1000cc and 28 years old, only has 66000 miles on the clock too!

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Well that was a flippin short lived plan!

My mate has now pulled out. I instigated a conversation last week about suitable bikes however I detected a distinct lack of enthusiasm on his part. Finally he said that after some thought he doesn't think he could go away for that long. I suggested a shorter trip but he then had 158,362 counter-arguments as to why it wouldn't suit him. He assures me it's nothing personal and I don't think it is.

So my original plan, mentioned here, http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...e-2017-a-88373 is back on.

Look on the bright side Chris...his loss and your gain
Better for him to pull out than whinge all the way round on the trip and ruin it for you

Wayne

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The Balkans
https://new.horizonsunlimited.com/poi_entity/8417

I bought a Honda Transalp for 700 Dollars, rode around Africa with it and still use it every day. If i would sell it i would still get 700 Dollars so i can recomend it: http://afrikamotorrad.eu/?report=en_westkueste